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China now our top university partner

China has overtaken the United States as Australia's biggest "knowledge partner" for the first time.

A Universities Australia study of the links institutions here have with those overseas found the connections with China have increased by 72 per cent since 2003.

With 885 university agreements with Chinese institutions now, that country overtook the US (with 876 links) as Australia's leading partner.

The study found Australian universities continued to strongly pursue partnerships around the globe, with a 28 per cent jump in formal agreements since 2008.

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The survey looked at academic or research collaborations, student and staff exchanges, and overseas study programs.

It found Australian institutions had 7123 of those links with counterparts in more than 100 other countries.

In China, almost nine in 10 agreements included academic or research collaborations.

Almost half included staff exchanges while a quarter incorporated student exchanges.

"These figures show that Australian universities are leading the way when it comes to capitalising on the opportunities of the Asian century," Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said on Monday.

"The Asian Century White Paper called for universities to have at least one major partner in Asia - this report shows that we remain ahead of the pack with over 2800 agreements in place."

Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said it was an impressive achievement of which Australian universities should be proud.

"China has been Australia's largest trading partner since 2009 and this year became Australia's most significant knowledge partner," he told the Australia-China University Leaders' Forum on Canberra on Monday.

He said the government's next priority was to further higher education partnerships in China, including encouraging more two-way flow of students between the countries.